Preparing Students

Here are some sources that may be useful in making Wikipedia an educational resource.
First, for students to be successful researchers, they need to know how to research and how to utilize Wikipedia.

• Looking at multiple resources on the topic they are researching
• Find out the latest update on Wiki pages
• Who wrote the article or Wiki page & look at the discussions, changes, etc. that is available

Here are some resources for preparing students
Wikipedia: Researching With Wikipedia
Teaching Tips: Wikis in the Classroom
Library Skills: Wikipedia in Student Research
Lesson Plan From Read/Write/Think

Here are some resources for evaluating quality of Wikipedia information:
Website Credibility
Teaching Our Students to Evaluate Websites

Here are some resources on editing Wikipedia information:
Wikis That Actually "Work"
How To Contribute To Wikipedia


SOS Children is a charity based in the UK. They have compiled Wikipedia articles, checked them for accuracy and organized them based on subject matter. They used the UK National Curriculum when compiling these articles. You can check out their compilation at Wikipedia for Schools

The Wikimedia Foundation started the Wikipedia Education Program to provide more support for educators who are interested in using Wikipedia as a teaching tool

---

---

Preparing Parents

Successful students includes their parents/guardians. Parents could be concerned about Wikipedia being a safe environment for their children. Wikipedia's FAQ has useful information to inform parents regarding Wikipedia as a valuable research tool.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:FAQ/Schools

EDUCAUSE has a library on technology topics and research to support its use specifically in higher education. Here is their list regarding Wikipedia. https://library.educause.edu/search#?q=wikipedia



Back to Pros/Cons of Wikipedia as an Educational Resource